The present invention relates to vehicle navigation systems and more particularly, the present invention is a feature provided by a vehicle navigation system whereby a user of the vehicle navigation system can specify types of audio programming to be provided to the vehicle user at designated locations along a route to a destination.
Navigation systems are available that provide end users with various navigation-related features. Some navigation systems are installed in vehicles and are able to provide end users of the navigation systems (such as the drivers of the vehicles in which the navigation systems are installed) with various useful features associated with driving the vehicles. For example, some navigation systems are able to determine optimum routes to travel by roads between locations in a geographic region. Using input from the end user, and optionally from equipment that can determine one""s physical location (such as a GPS system), a navigation system can examine various routes between two locations to determine an optimum route to travel from a starting location to a destination location in a geographic region. The navigation system may then provide the end user with information about the optimum route in the form of guidance that identifies the driving maneuvers required to be taken by the end user to travel from the starting location to the destination location. The guidance may take the form of visual and/or audio instructions that are provided along the way as the end user is traveling the route. Some navigation systems are able to show detailed maps on computer displays outlining routes to destinations, the types of maneuvers to be taken at various locations along the routes, locations of certain types of features, and so on.
In order to provide these and other navigating functions, navigation systems use geographic data. The geographic data may be in the form of one or more databases that include data that represent physical features in a geographic region. A geographic database used by a navigation system may include data representing the roads and intersections in a geographic region and also may include information relating to the represented roads and intersections in the geographic region, such as turn restrictions at intersections, speed limits along the roads, street names of the various roads, address ranges along the roads, and so on.
Although navigation systems provide many important features, there continues to be room for improvements. One area in which there is room for improvement relates to enhancing the experience of driving. As an example, people who drive may prefer to listen to CD""s or tapes, but listen to the radio instead in order to hear traffic or weather reports.
Accordingly, it is an objective to use a navigation system to enhance the experience of driving.
To address these and other objectives, the present invention comprises a feature implemented by a navigation system whereby the user of a vehicle selects one or more types of audio programs and associates each type of audio program with a specific location along a predetermined route. As the vehicle is being driven along the route, audio programs of the types selected by the user are obtained and stored in a memory. When the vehicle reaches the location associated with one of the selected types of audio programming, the stored audio program of the selected type is presented to the user.